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Becky McCray will be returning to speak at SMTulsa for the 7th time. Photo by Lauri Rottmayer.

SMTULSA Conference brings together a select group of people to discuss social media marketing strategy, email marketing, SEO, and other techniques to help business people rise above the noise and make a mark that will give their business longevity.

TULSA, OK (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 22, 2017

“There has never been a better time to be a successful business,” says Cheryl Lawson, founder of Social Media Tulsa and the driving force behind the annual SMTULSA Social Business Conference. “Yet we see so many businesses fail to take advantage of the tools and strategies available today. Your business deserves to be successful.”

With that mission in mind, Lawson is hosting the 7th annual SMTULSA Social Business Conference in Tulsa on March 30–31, 2017. At the event, local and national social marketing experts will speak, coach and inspire business owners, non-profits, artists and authors with techniques and advice relevant to today’s social marketing landscape. This year marks a first for the conference — it will take place in the Grand Hall of the Cherokees at Tulsa’s popular Hard Rock Casino & Hotel.

SMTULSA brings together a select group of people to discuss digital marketing strategy, email marketing, SEO, and other techniques to help business people rise above the noise and make a mark that will give their business longevity. In today’s tight, competitive marketing, conference attendees benefit from practical advice from business experts who are successfully and actively using the tools and techniques they share about in their conference sessions.

Networking is also a large and vital part of the two-day event. Through networking events, meals and more, conference attendees are encouraged to connect with others who are facing similar business challenges. The result is a network of like-minded, passionate social media aficionados who can share strategies and boost each other’s goals.

“I’ve had the great opportunity to attend and speak at some of the largest social media conferences in the world,” says Eric T. Tung, one of this year’s speakers and Director of Digital Communications at GoTo Marketers. “But SMTULSA really gives you something different. They give you a network that you can walk away with… You can really tap into that network through SMTULSA and they can really help you figure your way out.”

SMTULSA is well known for its impressive list of respected social networkers and businesspeople with proven success and expertise. Conference attendees can expect valuable insights into social strategy, marketing, customer care, brand management and much more.

“It’s less about bringing a lot of influencers together so we can influence each other and more about bringing together a community, so that we can share, have conversation, and really actually learn from each other,” says Becky McCray, an expert on rural business trends and a repeat speaker at SMTULSA.

Other speakers this year include: Jacob Chappell, Vice President of Sales at SOCi; Robert Bochnak, Director of Social Media for the Harvard Business School’s Alumni Office; Shayla Price, content creator/promoter for Kissmetrics, AgoraPulse, HostGator, Shopify Plus and others; Rick Rockhill, Executive Vice President of Lucy Pet Products; and Deb Brown, Executive Director Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce in Iowa. A full list of speakers can be found at smtulsa.com/speakers.

Registration for the 2017 conference is open at smtulsa.com. Early registration ($375 per person, with various package prices for both corporate and non-profit teams) ends February 28. After that date, the cost is $400. The conference has limited seating and is expected to sell out, so act quickly to secure your place.

About the SMTULSA Social Business Conference:
The SMTULSA Social Business Conference is a well-known, respected two-day event on digital marketing practices in the U.S. heartland. Local and national speakers gather to offer keynotes, case studies, presentations, breakout sessions, and an abundance of networking opportunities for small business owners, entrepreneurs, bloggers, visual media artists, social media aficionados, and others with an interest in engaging through online methods. To learn more, visit http://www.smtulsa.com

About Social Media Tulsa
Social Media Tulsa, the go-to resource for local businesses and events such as the Center of the Universe Festival, Route 66 Marathon, SCOTFEST, and others. To learn more, visit. http://www.socialmediatulsa.com

Pernod Ricard, owner of Absolut vodka, is building a terrific connection following Small Town Rule 7: Build Your Local Connections. They are working with local distilling entrepreneurs worldwide on a project called Our/Vodka. Each will be called by the local city name, like Our/Austin or Our/Melbourne.

The local partner will open micro-distilleries that will produce vodka following a set recipe but by using local ingredients. Our/Berlin is open now. Watch for new openings in Detroit in June, with Seattle, New York, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and London planned later this year. Austin, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans and Melbourne are planned in 2015.

Regional supermarket chain Piggly Wiggly is proudly proclaiming their localness as a selling point. This is exactly how to do Rule 7: Be Local.

“At Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company, we know what it means to be ‘local.’ Our founder, Joe Newton, had a vision when he started this grocery store chain in 1947 — to buy local, sell local, hire local and invest in the community. Today, we’re 100% employee owned and Joe’s vision holds true. The Pig has more than 100 stores and over 4,000 employee owners throughout South Carolina and southeastern Georgia. We support local businesses and farms. We invest in the communities of which we are a part. Piggly Wiggly is, and will always be, local since forever.”

These two bits from a 2012 Citibank small business survey really stood out as Rule 1: Plan for Zero moments. Both business owners and employees have gone without or delayed pay, to help the business survive.

Almost one quarter of business owners have gone a year or more without pay to keep their business alive.

“In addition to using their own money to help their business survive (69 percent), the majority of small-business owners (54 percent) say they have gone without a paycheck. Looking back over the history of their businesses, almost one-quarter (23 percent) have gone without pay for one year or more.”

“Demonstrating true commitment, employees showed thanks by their own investment in the success of the company: more than one-third (38 percent) of owners say their employees worked additional hours without pay; another 18 percent credit their employees with voluntarily missed or delayed paychecks.”

If you don’t seriously plan for zero in your business, you’re putting the business at risk.

Photo: pizza place owner happy at work in downtown Austin, Texas. Photo by Becky McCray.

The Small Town Rules secret is out: small town banks know a lot of things big banks don’t. Bloomberg Businessweek author Brendan Greely picked up on it in a story, “Rural banks know something big banks don’t.”

“It turns out small, rural banks make smarter loans,” Greely said. It’s the soft knowledge, the un-quantifiable personal factors, that make smarter loans. And community banks excel at knowing the people. It also helps that rural bankers face their borrowers and investors daily in the community.

New regulations aimed at bad loans in big banks are hurting small community banks, raising their overhead in a time when margins are low. The result is many rural community banks looking to expand modestly by acquiring banks in neighboring towns, but existing bankers are in no mood to sell. They’re just as invested in their local community.

A web.com sponsored survey found 85% of consumers said they chose small businesses because they are:

personal, intimate, human, face-to-face

easy to to business with

customer focused

There’s never been a better time to be Small in business (Rule 6). Consumers are ready to accept you for just the size you are. In fact, consumers defined small business as 25 or fewer employees, so forget about that 500 employee rule from the SBA.

83% also said they wanted the small business they choose to be online and active on social media. So consumers seem to want to extend that personal, human relationship online, too.

The online survey, fielded by Toluna Research from August 9-15, 2013, had 3,000 total respondents, out of whom 850 (28%) were Small Business Decision Makers in organizations with fewer than 25 employees. The survey has a ±2.25% to 2.74% margin of error at 95% confidence at the 3,000 “all respondent level” and a ±3.00% to 3.49% margin of error at 95% confidence for the 850 SBDMs.

AlwaysOn announced their Power Players in Technology Business Media list, honoring the the editors, writers, and bloggers in the technology world who are keeping the Global Silicon Valley connected and informed. Becky McCray was included for her work at her award-winning blog Small Biz Survival.

“This year’s Power Players in Technology Business Media list spans a wide range of jounalistic talent, from established reporters, writers, and editors for multi-national news organizations to independent writers and bloggers crossing over from the venture capital community,” said AlwaysOn’s Shannon Calvin. “This year’s inaugural list highlights an impressive group of talented and opinionated people who are covering the issues that matter in the Global Silicon Valley, keeping the world informed on the best ideas and trends in technology.”

This adds to the awards received for the book Small Town Rules, including the Small Business Book Awards 2013 and the Best Small Business Books Published in 2012 from the NFIB.

Paint company Benjamin Moore is identifying with Main Streets through a campaign to repaint 20 downtowns. They’re backing it up with TV commercials praising downtowns, the “three-story highrise,” and the small businesses that typify Small Town Rules.

The Shops at Target are a new type of collaboration, taking products from small shops, “the shops we stumbled upon and couldn’t help but fall in love with” and putting them in Target stores around the country for six-week runs. And not just stacking them in, but recreating each business’s unique aesthetic with personalized displays.

Usually, Target is known for working with big-name designers and luxury clothing brands. This is completely different, focusing on the small. Stores have included The Candy Store, Cos Bar, Polka Dog Bakery, Privet House, The Webster, Boston-based Patch NYC, Manhattan fashion boutiques Kirna Zabête and Odin, and The Curiosity Shoppe from San Francisco.